by: Alice Park<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Should you give your baby a COVID-19 shot? The answer isn’t as straightforward or as much of a consensus as it used to be: In an unusual move, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is recommending<\/a> a different approach to childhood vaccination than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both groups agree that families should make individual decisions in consultation with their doctors about whether kids should be vaccinated. But the AAP has a stricter stance for the youngest eligible children in the U.S., recommending that all of them get COVID-19 shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CDC stopped recommending<\/a> COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children older than six months following guidance<\/a> from the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in May. The CDC does, however, recommend the shot for children who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A day after the AAP released its recommendations, Kennedy fired back at the organization on social media<\/a>, accusing them of allowing pharmaceutical-company donors to guide their recommendations. AAP maintains that its recommendations are based on science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s what to know about the clashing advice regarding COVID-19 vaccines for kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether most children should get a COVID-19 vaccine should be based on their particular risk, the AAP says\u2014taking into account their underlying conditions, such as asthma, obesity, or diabetes, as well as whether they live in a household with people at high risk for developing severe disease. That risk is higher for the youngest eligible age group\u2014ages 6 months to 23 months\u2014which is why the AAP recommends that all kids in this age group get vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor the youngest kids, the hospitalization rate is similar to that for adults 50 to 64 years old,\u201d says Dr. Sean O\u2019Leary, chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases. \u201cIt\u2019s not nothing. And that\u2019s for something that can be prevented by a vaccine, which has been better studied than any medical product in our history. We have a very strong level of confidence in the safety of the vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n HHS did not respond to TIME’s request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Generally, the CDC sets the schedule for which vaccines people should get and at which ages. The CDC makes its decision based on advice from its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). ACIP is made up of independent experts who volunteer to review data, discuss their findings, and make recommendations to help guide the CDC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Kennedy\u2014a longtime vaccine-skeptic who now oversees the CDC as head of HHS\u2014fired<\/a> all members of ACIP in June<\/a>, accusing them of following industry interests. Kennedy replaced them days later with people he had selected, \u201cmany of them with strong anti-vaccine views,\u201d says O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After ACIP was replaced, AAP\u2014which typically works closely with the advisory committee and other liaison groups in setting vaccination schedules\u2014decided not to attend ACIP\u2019s first meeting under the new administration in the spring. \u201cWe saw from that meeting that ACIP has gone off the rails, essentially, in terms of the way they are operating and the messaging from the new members, which is very much around sowing distrust about vaccines and not making evidence-based vaccine recommendations,\u201d says O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weeks later, the AAP and other liaison groups were asked to discontinue their participation in ACIP work groups, O\u2019Leary says. \u201cWe received an email un-inviting us,\u201d he says. The reason provided, he says, was that the organizations represented \u201cspecial interest groups,\u201d which O\u2019Leary says is a \u201cpoor interpretation of the rules. All of the organizations at the table have expertise, and there are a lot of reasons to have representation from professional societies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n O\u2019Leary says pediatricians are anticipating having to have more conversations with families about the conflicting vaccine advice, and that the AAP is providing guidance to help inform those discussions on its website and via emails to its members. \u201cPolitics has entered the exam room in a way that it never has before,\u201d he says. \u201cThese discussions will be contextual, depending on how well the pediatrician knows the family, what relationship they have, and how frank they can be with them in the discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, he says, the message from pediatricians should be this: \u201cWe are committed to the health of children, and our recommendations are based on the best available science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat does the AAP recommend in terms of COVID-19 shots for children?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why are the recommendations different?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Which advice will doctors and pharmacists follow?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n